My friends took me to 4th Generation Market earlier this week to pick up some prepared foods for a beautiful picnic in Sugar Sand Park with our babies. The food was so awesome that I had to take my husband back there this weekend to check it out (and Roku too of course!). It is a bit of a drive for us, but well worth it. We shopped around the market first and found a great deal on avocados. They are $2.50 each at Whole Foods and less than $2 each at 4th Generation Market We also picked up some organic bananas (only 89 center per pound) and some dried apples. As for our Raw Food Lunch, I had 2 pieces of falafel which were so tasty along with the Kale Salad. Neil had the Schezuan slaw which has cabbage, celery and sprouts. It also tasted like there was a bit of ginger and peanut. We both had a Chai Macaroon AND a Goji Macaroon! So tasty and sweet! It was hard to resist the raw brownie with goji berries, but we managed to pass on it this time. For dinner, we picked up a Raw Pizza which I just ate. It was so flavorful with oregano and a great tomato sauce. It also tasted like there was a cashew cheese on top. After we finished our lunch, we went for a stroll around the area. There are a lot of great shops within walking distance of the market. We popped into Sugar Plum Children’s boutique where we picked up a really cute outfit for Roku. He is wearing 12-18 months and is only 5 months old! Must be all that tasty raw food : )

Raw Food Babies Gain Weight Too!
When Roku neared the 22 pound weight limit of his Chicco Infant Carrier Carseat at 4 months, I had to find a ‘big boy’ car seat to replace it. So I sent out an inquiry to my friends via Facebook and my mom’s group and the Britax Marathon was the choice…hands down! Of the 10 people who responded to my inquiry, ALL 10 suggested this convertible carseat. I ordered it online through http://www.travelingtikes.com for a great price. They have EXCELLENT customer service too. Roku still hates riding in a carseat 90% of the time, however I am 100% pleased with the quality and comfort of this carseat.

Technically, a frozen banana was Roku’s first raw food. I started him with this at 4.5 months because his gums were a bit swollen which is a sign of teething. He sucked on it through the Munchkin fresh food feeder (I call it the ‘snacker’) much like he is the papaya in the video below. However, we decided to give him more banana in the snacker and it did not go down so well. He ended up filling up his diaper pretty well with poo which is an indication that it was either too much or his digestive tract is not ready for solids. He was a little over 4.5 months old at that point. A few weeks later I decided to let him try papaya. Papaya naturally contains digestive enzymes, so I thought that this would go down a little bit easier. He did very well the first day I gave it to him. I gave him less than a tablespoon in the snacker. I gave him a little more the next day and it came back up. So I have decided to wait until at least 6 months before I try out any other solids (and continue breastfeeding, ofcourse!). At 27 inches tall and 22 pounds, he is doing just fine on breast milk for now!